Sverdlovsk Region: retail loan gets 10% smaller

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 22, 2015. The average amount of a retail loan issued to Sverdlovsk Region-based borrowers dropped by 10% (from 181,600 RUR to 164,600 RUR) between August 2014 and August 2015, National Bureau of Credit History reports.

As for the country’s average, this figure grew by 4.13% (from 167,300 RUR to 174,400 RUR).

‘Retail lending crisis reached its peak in January-March 2015, when banks virtually stopped the lending assembly line; the average loan amount went up by 45,600 RUR, or 26.1% compared with January 2015 (128,900 RUR),’ the Bureau says.

Director-General Alexander Vikulin points out these figures signify a recovery to pre-recession levels: the average loan amount stood at 176,600 RUR in September 2014.

According to the Bureau, the overall number of borrowers decreased by 4.4m people, from 39.7m to 35.3m, however.

‘There are fewer borrowers (who are issued bigger loan amounts) now due to rising inflation (and therefore goods and services bought on credit growing more expensive) and better risk management on the banks’ part,’ Vikulin says.